DUBAI: When Saudi social media star and YouTuber Osama Marwah learned that he had been nominated for the Favorite Arab Star prize at the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, he was over the moon.
But the news really sunk in when his fans began posting about the announcement.
“This whole online campaign started, and it was so nice to see my followers’ reactions — seeing that they’re excited as much as I am for the award, and then seeing their excitement to share the voting links. Honestly, it’s an honor,” Marwah told Arab News in a Zoom interview.
The Favorite Arab Star award honors talents from the Middle East and North Africa.
Best known for his vlogs and prank videos, Marwah was nominated alongside Syrian comedian and social media personality Amro Maskoun, Jordanian YouTuber Raghda Kouyoumdjian — famous for her short comedy skits and lip sync videos — and Rozzah, a 19-year-old Jordanian content creator with more than 4.2 million followers.
Marwah, who has more than 5.93 million followers on YouTube, has his older brother to thank for pushing him in front of the camera.
“Maybe three or four years after my oldest brother started his YouTube channel, I used to help him behind the scenes because I was just too shy to be on camera. I understood YouTube, I know how it works. I know how to edit videos, how to make stories, but I was always so shy. Until one day, my brother just pretty much forced me onto the camera and then the audience’s reaction was just unbelievable,” said Marwah, who is based out of Dubai.
“The video got maybe 3 or 4 million views. And the audience were like, ‘oh my God, why don’t you make your own videos?’ This is when I started gaining confidence,” he added.
The 27-year-old, who is known for his light-hearted and funny videos that often also involve his friends and family, said that he is constantly trying to create content that no one else is doing.
“We’ve done things like taking a scooter from Dubai to Oman, buying one item of everything at the Apple Store and surprising my dad, and more recently, I did a video where I wanted to experiment if a human being can just stand still for 30 hours,” he said.
Marwah and his team often use word generators to come up with out-of-the-box ideas.
“We’ll use the random words to see if anything comes to mind. I like to tell my team, ‘There are no stupid ideas,’ because everyone’s just afraid to say something. And then, out of nowhere, just an idea comes up. And then we will send it through the next filter: Is it feasible? Are the production costs too high? Are there rules against it in the UAE? Do we need permits, and so on. And then once that is passed, I sit down and write the script. And then we take that and send it to the production team who will prepare everything and we set the shoot date,” said Marwah.
When asked if he would like to share some advice for young content creators in the region, Marwah said: “Make sure you want to do it. Because it’s not like a job where you just make money. Yes, the money will come later on. But, if you’re not doing it because you love to do it, you just won’t make it because it takes so much sacrifice and hard work. So, make sure this is what you want to do and be committed and consistent.”
